Archaeologists explore prehistoric submerged city of Pavlopetri in Greece

Archaeologists are currently exploring, trying to map and preserve one of the oldest known submerged cities in the world, the ancient town of Pavlopetri located near Neapolis, the southernmost town of mainland Greece in the Peloponnese.

“The site is submerged in about three to four meters of water, and covers an area of about 500 square metres, about 50-60 metres offshore,” one of the project leaders, underwater archaeologist Jon Henderson from the University of Nottingham told Nature News.

“There are about 15 buildings made up of three or four rooms, some streets, rock-cut tombs and courtyards – and there could be more underneath, because so far there has been no excavation.

Some ruins date from at least 2800 BC, but we think the town Pavlopetri itself dates from the Mycenaean period, about 1600–1100 BC,” he added.

According to Henderson, the city’s structures were intact when it was submerged and the discovered pottery artefacts seemed to stop at the 1,100 BC threshold, which could mean that the constructions were covered by the sea shortly after.